hi, i'm thinking of heading to either of these places in early may. not entirely 100% deinite why - i guess i'm happy to skip the hubbub of bali and i want something a bit more authentic. karang nyimbor is on south sumatra and looks the best to me - i'm intermediate. But i'm not sure it's easy to get to. it might take a day from jakarta (and same in return of course)
has anyone been to any of these (karang nyimbor on sumatra, or batu karas)?

i'm told batu karas has a beach break, a couple of surf shack and is quite relaxed.

if anyone has info on transport, flights, etc. good places to stay, i'd be very grateful

hi -batu karas is very relaxed. Has a chilled small point break and a bit of a reef as well but its not awesome surf and the options are limited. If you want to primarily chill out then its good. Look at javacove hotel website - its a new (revamped) hotel on the beach at batu karas -will give you more info.
South sumatra is more beautiful and has a lot more surf options. If i had a few weeks that's where i would head. A lot more options including beach breaks that can get very good. Search the net for places to stay or jsut turn up there and you'll do it cheaper. Its at least a day from jakarta - you can fly to lampung then its about a 7 hour bus ride or there used ot be buses from jakarta straight there - 14 hours.

Batu karas will be onshore most of the time in may.
SE winds will come up by 11 or 12 in the morning which is dead onshore.
Karang nyimbor is ok but not good as often as youd think.
It sections badly very often despite getting a lot of swell.

In fact i dont rate south sumatra that highly even though ive spent four months of dry season there (i ran out of coin and couldnt move around- had to budget $2000aud over four months here).
The waves do get good if you're willing to wait, just not as good as bali and not as often.
Long distance between waves too which you get sick of.

yeah I agree Malcolm,Ive spent some time in South Sumatra and most other surf areas in Indo and I dont rate it that high, id say its better than central java and west java(not including Panatian), but nothing compared to the other areas of Sumatra, and Bali and the islands going east.

surfing in sumatera with in Java there are some significant differences, especially infrastructure. Java has facilities and infrastructure better than sumatera. but it was not important for the true surfers, which you need is a beach and the waves. Batukaras easier to achieve than the second though karangnyimbor place to be reached by car. for beginners Batukaras have fun waves but there is a more challenging spots around the stone Karas. if there is a need for the information or co-surfing in Indonesia, can PM it to my email, FYI, I live in Jakarta

Hi again, i would just like to say My name is not actually Malcolm, i posted before as malcolm but he is actually a friend i met there.

I did spend four months there but my name i wont give.
It seems my friends in Krui do not like me posting negative information on Krui so i better not give mal a bad name. He is a good bloke
and using his name to say what I think of that area is probably a bad thing to do to him.